Forrester analyst Charlene Li makes a good point on her blog about iTunes 4.9 upcoming fluency with podcasts. Charlene notes that Apple will provide a mechanism for allowing podcast providers to charge for their products, and she admonishes Audible.com (which provides paid content to iTMS) to get up to speed with podcasts pronto. I have been thinking about the new iTunes as an iPodder-slayer, which is a powerful prospect by itself. iPodder is the dominant podcast aggregator, and my exsperience with the program has been unfavorable—bugs, crashes, mysterious missing files that prevent boot-up. If Apple will apply its trademark usability and smooth operation to its well-established user base, it could catalyze a giant step forward for podcasting. As to grass-roots paid products, that angle reminds me of Google Video's nascent collection of indie video products with a built-in for-pay mechanism. Google is moving through quicksand compared to Apple—granted, of course, that podcasting is a more liquid environment than video production. So what we'll have with iTunes 4.9 is a combination industry motivator, business model creator, and competition slayer. I dare say it will get me using iTunes regularly for the first time. Version 4.9 is looming as a huge development.